Project Lazarus: Brake booster replacement is done.

So here is where we left off last week:

 Ugly as sin and waiting.

This is the last time this was on the road:

 It sure has been a while.

Let us pop the hood and get working!

 This is the object of our attention today:

 First things first: taking off the steering wheel:

 I know it isn't strictly necessary to take off the dash, but I know I've had rodents in the car and wanted to check on the condition of the wiring and to see if there was any other damage anywhere.

Here is my cheap boost gauge:

 It always worked and even if it is pretty ugly, having one is better than not having one. I bet you also love my high-class mounting of the gauge, too, right?

I thought this thing had more miles on it than this. Not that it even matters at this point.

Here is the wiring I did when I modded the gauge cluster to run blue LEDs:

 I happen to love blue LEDs for non-critical lighting. heh I think that might be the only ricer tendency I have.

More awesome mounting of things:

 HVAC control:

 I just have the diverter locked at full hot. I don't ever need to change it. I may eventually do the 90-93 Accord control swap. It looks rather snazzy and doesn't crack to pieces like the CR unit does (and did in my car).

Here is my favorite steering wheel mod:

 That is my custom horn button. Ugly as sin, but I think that not having to take your hand off the wheel to use the horn is essential for driving in and around the greater NYC Metro area.

This is likely the most important part of the car:

 I ALWAYS know where my Brain is. Yes, I have fuzzy dice. I have to eventually get a new, non-sun faded set, but the Pinky and Brain will always be hung off the mirror.

Another peak at the LED:

 One of these days I will make a custom gauge cluster using LED lighting in a much more efficient manner, but for now, it works and looks cool. heh

Here is another essential mod:

 The tape residue is from the electrical tape I used to block the seat belt light from blinking for years. I was lazy and didn't fix the seat belt plug. heh

More wiring:

 A different view of the LEDs:

Cluster out:

After some wrangling, the Dash is out:

This is for Ron:

 That is how I triangulated the the pedal assembly because of my overly stiff clutch. However, it isn't done exactly right as it blocks the 4th bolt of booster. Not perfect, but, well, I am not worrying about it now. (Or ever.)

After spending some time on my back under the dash:

This thing is perfect:

 I am crazy for replacing it?

A lot of road grime behind the booster, but the seal actually really works!

I painted the booster, as I detested the grey crap finish on the booster, so I painted it:

 The finish isn't great as it was super humid and I did minimal prep, but it looks way better than before!

Old:

 

New with the new MC:

That new reservoir is HUGE!

I'm being pick, but I don't like the bands on the reservoir:

The stock one is wider over a larger part of the circumference

I adjusted the rod to the same length as the stock one, though, it isn't the exactly correct way to do it, but we'll see what happens when I drive the sucker:

I cleaned the original gasket, too.

Here is what it looks like installed:

WOW! That looks like it will clear a lot more space for my Edelbrock manifold.

 Now one to some other stuff!

I don't remember why I blocked off this section on the air diverter:

Does anyone know a good replacement for all the foam surrounds on the outlets?

I couldn't find my brake bleeder kit, so I picked up these to "bench" bleed the master: 

For years I never had the cover on my gauge cluster. DON'T do that. The plast doesn't like UV exposure:

Oh well. I do have something to fix this after I get my car back up and running. And, as usual, I'll be "upgrading" as I fix things. heh

Project Lazarus: I start taking things apart.

Holy crap! I am actually working on my own CRX! I'm scared and excited. The first day of major surgery went pretty well.

So, here is where I started off. Well, sort of. I removed a bunch of stuff before and moved the radiator support out of the way to make my life easier:

 I sprayed everything down with liquid wrench:

 I like Liquid Wrench. It foams up and seems to "stick" pretty well, without just running off/away.

I got the clamps off the filter next . . . but man, that this is literally wedged in there:

 This is why I don't like using copper lines, especially for coolant:

 That being said, I still prefer hard lines to the braided stainless lines everyone seems to love so much. When I re-do these lines, I will be using annealed stainless steel brake lines. No rust, no breakage, no leaks, and they look good on top of it!

Data plate on my cute little turbo:

 Made in Japan, just like my CRX!

Ready to attack the bolts:

 Notice I used stainless bolts. I love stainless hardware.

Here is the very first exhaust piece I made entirely myself:

 That is a genuine 3" downpipe off the T25. Talk about overkill, but I wanted to minimize spool times, and I sure as heck did!

Ugh: reminders of a super annoying repair I had to make on this engine from the one time I let a friend take care of my car:

 Stu: You suck sometimes.

And another reminder:

I'll be fixing that when I take care of something for the front crossmember, too. 

Well, everything was going pretty smoothly! I even managed to get the O2 sensor out without an issue:

Yeah, that is really tight:

You have to thread the nut on before sliding the flange home.

This was no ideal, but still a pretty good drain angle:

 I never had any issues with it at all, but have something a bit better in mind for when everything goes back together again.

And then, a thunderstorm rolled in HARD. Ihad about 1 minute of warning when the wind shifted and a few fat drops of rain started coming down. I knew what was about to happen, so I jammed my tools under the hood, threw parts back into my trunk and barely made it into my Legend before the sky opened up.

I sat in my Legend for 45 minutes to this view:

After the storm had passed, I got back to it and managed to get the turbo out completely:

 Here are some of the things I need to rectify for the next version:

 SOHC exhaust manifold gasket, not even ported to fit! LOL!

See how much overlap there is up top?

Yeah, athat can't be good for anything, so next time, I'll be using proper DOHC parts and port-matching the manifold itself.

After the rain, I was too wet to really take too many pictures, but there wasn't too much more interesting that happened aside from me discovering that I need a new brake booster since I couldn't separate the master cylinder from the brake booster due to the MC leaking fluid and corroding the booster pretty badly.

I am ordering an Hf booster to replace this one, as it is physically smaller. I will need the extra clearance for running my Edelbrock manifold when it gets swapped into the car.

So, not a bad start to work, even if I didn't get as far as I would have liked. That's OK. I'll be back after I get the booster so I can get that replaced and get on with the brake R&R. I have new calipers rotors and pads for the front. I won't be messing with the back at all as long as there are no apparent issues in use, and I don't really anticipate there being any, either. Eventually I will replace the rear wheel cylinders for good measure. No, I am not swapping to rear discs, as I despise the Civic/Integra/Whatever integrated parking brake caliper. It is a piece of junk design and I hate it. I will only ever swap over to rear discs if I can find a way to install proper rear discs that uses a disc over drum setup for real parking/emergency brake use. Rear drums work better for that kind of thing, and since my car is so darn light, the rears don't do much for braking anyway.